Curt Schilling: ‘Members of the [Red Sox] organization’ encouraged me to use PEDs

Posted By
Jerry Spar
On
February 7, 2013 @ 10:08 am
In
General |
79 Comments

Curt Schilling[1], in a Wednesday interview on ESPN Radio[2], said toward the end of his tenure with the Red Sox[3] he was encouraged to use performance-enhancing drugs by “members of the organization.”

“At the end of my career, in 2008 when I had gotten hurt, there was a conversation that I was involved in in which it was brought to my attention that this is a potential path I might want to pursue,” Schilling told Colin Cowherd.

Asked for more details, Schilling said the conversation occurred in the clubhouse and involved “former members of the organization — they’re no longer there. It was an incredibly uncomfortable conversation. Because it came up in the midst of a group of people. The other people weren’t in the conversation but they could clearly hear the conversation. And it was suggested to me that at my age and in my situation, why not? What did I have to lose? Because if I wasn’t going to get healthy, it didn’t matter. And if I did get healthy, great.

“It caught me off guard, to say the least. That was an awkward situation.”

Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez[4] is in the middle of another PED controversy, this one involving a reputed HGH-peddler in Florida, and Schilling said it’s likely to spell the end of A-Rod’s career.

“I don’t think he’s going to be able to play physically this year anyway [after offseason hip surgery]. I really don’t,” Schilling said. “But I would be shocked if he [ever played again] — not shocked, I’d be surprised. I think he’s done. I think he’s done because I think everybody that has a say in him coming back wants him to be done.”

Schilling said there were always questions about Rodriguez shortly after he broke into the big leagues as a teenager.

“Given where he came from, from a college perspective, and given all the stuff that’s coming out, and it seems that Florida is a hotbed for a lot of this stuff — I know there were always questions,” Schilling said. “There were a couple of guys that were in the conversation well before this became a topic of conversation. There were a couple of guys that guys wondered early in their careers, that were in the conversation.”

Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun[5] also was linked to the controversial Florida adviser, Anthony Bosch, but Braun has insisted that the relationship consisted of a legal consultation between Bosch and the player’s agent.

“This is getting to a point where you almost have to treat every player under the same blanket,” Schilling said. “I want to believe that Ryan Braun didn’t. I want to believe that his explanation is legit. [But] this guy [Bosch], clearly he’s not a doctor. I think they made it very clear in the article that he’s not a doctor. So why would [Braun’s] agents be using him as an expert witness to testify to the T/E ratios and the possibilities of tampering with samples?”

Added Schilling: “This is one of those things that we make it a lot more complicated than it is. If you’re associating with the guy and you’re doing business with the guy, the guy’s business is HGH and performance-enhancing drugs, right? Unless there’s something else there I don’t know about. But that’s what I know he does. So, why else would you be associating with the guy?”

I’ve never understood this ‘issue’ with gay players? Who cares? I know I played with some, their sexual orientation never had much to do with how they hit with RISP, or pitched in late and close situations, why the hell would what they do in the bedroom ever matter?